The present application relates generally motion sensing, imaging capture, and analysis, and the use thereof in the assessment and treatment of patients suffering from diseases or conditions resulting in motion impairment, as well as the use of motion sensing and capture to evaluate and diagnose symptomatic patients or asymptomatic subjects.
A number of diseases or conditions are known which exhibit neurological effects, or which affect or impact a patient's motion, or some aspect of movement. Parkinson's Disease, Lou Gherig's Disease (ALS), and cerebral palsy are well known examples. Other diseases and conditions are known which can impair motion or activity, such as COPD. Still other diseases and conditions may exhibit some effect on motion or activity, for example Autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. Conversely, certain diseases and/or conditions may be detected and/or diagnosed by their affects on a patient's motion or physical activity.
In some cases, an ailment may affect a patient's activity level or range of activities by preventing the patient from being active. For example, chronic pain may cause a patient to avoid particular physical activities, or physical activity in general, where such activities increase the pain experienced by the patient. Other ailments that may affect patient activity include movement disorders such as tremor, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, or spasticity, which may result in irregular movement or activity, other neurological disorders, or a generally decreased level of activity. The difficulty walking or otherwise moving experienced by patients with movement disorders may cause such patients to avoid movement to the extent possible. Further, depression or other neoropsychiatric disorders such as dementia, depression, mania, bipolar disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, or conditions such as congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, gastrointestinal disorders, and incontinence are other examples of disorders that may generally cause a patient to be less active. When a patient is inactive, he may be more likely to be recumbent, i.e., lying down, or sitting, and may change postures less frequently.
Appropriate therapeutic drugs or other therapeutic forms indicated for motor diseases and/or neurological conditions may be determined by assessment of one or more of patient neurologic behavior, gait and motor coordination and activity levels. In addition, these metrics are important measures of long-term functional recovery. However, assessing the degree of motor dysfunction in a patient, whether acutely or over a longer term, is a difficult challenge. Some methods involve subjective scoring, by a clinician, of objective findings. Other methods of assessing neurologic behavior include the measurement of motor coordination and skill acquisition using various tests. These are not suited for fine motor measurements. Moreover, these tests require the patient to personally visit a clinician or healthcare provider, and often require the patient to visit a variety of different clinicians or healthcare providers, and/or visit multiple times. Another drawback of existing tests is that they often require specialized equipment, such as sensors which physically attach to the patient (e.g. accelerometers, gyros, magnetometers, Hall effect sensors and the like), and/or dedicated computer processing systems.
In addition to the need by clinicians and/or healthcare providers to evaluate individual patient neurological functions, drug manufacturers often to perform neurological evaluations on a test group of patients in the course of clinical trials to determine the safety and efficacy of a new medical treatment, for example, a new drug. During these trials, the medical treatment is administered to subjects in a test group. These subjects are monitored to gather clinical research data associated with subjects before, during, and after administration of the medical treatment. Based on an analysis of the data collected from the test group, a determination can be made on whether or not the treatment is safe, effective, and suitable for sale to the general public. This approach further extends to the post-marketing phase of treatment, where real-world use data is also collected for a number of safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness use cases.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system, apparatus and method by which fine motor activity and/or impairment can be accurately determined. There is a further need for such a system, apparatus and method which can be used by the patient at the patient's home or office, and without the need for special or dedicated sensors or computer equipment, and which is readily usable by young and old patients alike.
There is additionally a need for a system, apparatus and method by which subjects or patients can be evaluated based upon physical presentation, and/or ability (or inability) to perform motions.